The most frequent Catalan verbs include participles that cannot be predicted simply by attaching -at, -ut, or -it: fer → fet, dir → dit, veure → vist, prendre → pres, escriure → escrit, obrir → obert, and morir → mort. These forms occur every day, so learning them as families is more efficient than treating them as unrelated exceptions.
Irregularity belongs to the participle, not to the auxiliary. The present perfect still uses he, has, ha, hem, heu, and han, and weak pronouns still precede that auxiliary.
The core forms
| Infinitive | Participle | Useful compound | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| fer | fet | desfet, refet | done, made |
| dir | dit | contradit | said |
| veure | vist | previst | seen |
| prendre | pres | après, comprès, reprès | taken |
| escriure | escrit | descrit, inscrit, prescrit | written |
| obrir | obert | cobert, descobert | opened |
| morir | mort | — | died, dead |
Ja he fet la transferència; t'hauria d'arribar avui.
I've already made the transfer; it should reach you today.
No m'has dit a quina hora comença el concert.
You haven't told me what time the concert starts.
Han vist el missatge, però encara no han contestat.
They've seen the message, but they haven't replied yet.
Learn families, not isolated words
Many prefixed verbs inherit the participle of their base. The prendre family has prendre → pres and prefixed forms such as aprendre → après, comprendre → comprès, and reprendre → reprès. The grave accent in the longer forms marks stressed open è; the exact stem is lexical, so there is no fully automatic shortcut.
The escriure family keeps -crit: escrit, descrit, inscrit, prescrit. The cobrir/obrir family has -bert: obert, cobert, descobert. The metre family commonly has -mès: admès, emès, permès, promès. Learning the base makes several advanced verbs cheaper.
Finalment hem comprès per què fallava l'aplicació.
We've finally understood why the app was failing.
M'he inscrit al curs que m'has recomanat.
I've enrolled in the course you recommended.
La comissió no ha admès cap de les dues esmenes.
The committee has not accepted either amendment.
Other high-frequency forms use -ut but change their stem: tenir → tingut, venir → vingut, beure → begut, conèixer → conegut, néixer → nascut, viure → viscut, córrer → corregut, and voler → volgut. Because the ending looks regular while the stem is not, these often cause subtler errors than fet or vist.
Aquest mes hem tingut més comandes del que esperàvem.
This month we've had more orders than we expected.
La Júlia no ha vingut perquè té febre.
Júlia hasn't come because she has a fever.
A complete model paradigm: fer
The same irregular participle appears in every person. Only haver changes:
| Person | Present perfect |
|---|---|
| jo | he fet |
| tu | has fet |
| ell/ella/vostè | ha fet |
| nosaltres | hem fet |
| vosaltres | heu fet |
| ells/elles/vostès | han fet |
The participle normally remains masculine singular in a compound tense: elles han fet la feina. With a preceding third-person direct-object pronoun, agreement is possible and especially alive with feminine objects: la feina, l'han feta. That is agreement, not a different irregular stem; see why the participle usually does not agree with haver.
Doublets and regional preferences
Some verbs have accepted participial variants. In the general standard, -ert forms such as complert, establert, ofert, omplert, and sofert are widespread, especially in Central Catalan. (regional: Valencian; standard AVL) the corresponding -it forms complit, establit, oferit, omplit, and sofrit are preferred. They are systematic standard choices, not mistakes.
Ens han oferit una solució que compleix tots els requisits.
They've offered us a solution that meets all the requirements.
The core forms fet, dit, vist, pres, escrit, obert, and mort are shared across the major varieties. (informal, especially Central Catalan) analogical sapigut is heard for standard sabut “known”; use sabut in neutral and formal language.
Pronouns, polarity, and assertion
Weak pronouns precede the auxiliary: ho he fet, no l'hem vist, se n'ha anat. The participle cannot host an enclitic in a compound tense. The indicative asserts the completion; when a subordinate clause presents it as desired, doubted, or emotionally evaluated rather than independently asserted, use the perfect subjunctive as the syntax requires.
Dubto que ho hagin fet expressament, però és evident que han comès un error.
I doubt they did it deliberately, but it's clear that they made a mistake.
Here hagin fet is nonasserted under doubt, while han comès is asserted. A trigger list without reading the two meanings would miss that contrast.
Neighboring constructions
Do not confuse he escrit with vaig escriure. The former relates a completed event to the current discourse point; the latter presents a bounded past event. Nor is vaig a escriure automatically the same construction: when anar a + infinitive has prospective meaning, it means “I am going to write.” The complement after haver is a participle; the complement after periphrastic vaig is an infinitive.
English progressives create another trap. “I've been writing all morning” may naturally be Fa tot el matí que escric when duration up to now matters. He estat escrivint exists, but it deliberately profiles the activity; it should not be a reflex translation whenever English has “been + -ing.”
Mini-dialogue
—Has vist les claus del magatzem?
—Have you seen the storeroom keys?
—No, però he obert el calaix i no hi eren.
—No, but I opened the drawer and they weren't there.
—Ja les he trobades: algú les havia posades al costat de la cafetera.
—I've found them: someone had put them next to the coffee machine.
Common Mistakes
1. Regularizing a core irregular participle.
❌ Encara no he ferut la reserva.
Incorrect — the participle of fer is fet.
✅ Encara no he fet la reserva.
I still haven't made the reservation.
2. Copying the Spanish participle. Catalan escrit is not Spanish escrito.
❌ T'he escrito un correu amb tots els detalls.
Incorrect — escrito is Spanish.
✅ T'he escrit un correu amb tots els detalls.
I've written you an email with all the details.
3. Using a participle after the periphrastic-past auxiliary.
❌ Ahir vam vist una pel·lícula boníssima.
Incorrect — vam in the periphrastic past takes the infinitive veure.
✅ Ahir vam veure una pel·lícula boníssima.
Yesterday we saw a fantastic film.
4. Putting a weak pronoun after the participle.
❌ He fet-ho aquest matí.
Incorrect — in a finite compound tense, ho precedes he.
✅ Ho he fet aquest matí.
I did it this morning.
Key Takeaways
- Learn the highest-frequency forms—fet, dit, vist, pres, escrit, obert, and mort—as complete lexical items.
- Use families to expand efficiently: escrit/descrit/inscrit, pres/après/comprès, and obert/cobert/descobert.
- Irregularity changes the participle, not weak-pronoun placement or the haver paradigm.
Now practice Catalan
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Start learning Catalan →Related Topics
- Regular Past ParticiplesA2 — Form Catalan past participles in -at, -ut, and -it and use them correctly with haver.
- Forming the Present PerfectA2 — Build the Catalan present perfect with present haver plus a past participle, and place negation, questions, and weak pronouns correctly.
- Why the Participle Usually Does Not Agree with HaverB1 — Distinguish the invariable participle in compound tenses from agreement with objects, adjectives, and passive subjects.
- Double and Competing ParticiplesA2 — Choose among accepted Catalan participle doublets by region, register, syntactic use, and lexical meaning.
- Conjugation of ferA1 — Complete contemporary conjugation of fer for doing, making, weather, elapsed time, causatives, idioms, and pronominal fer-se.
- Conjugation of veureA1 — Complete contemporary conjugation of veure for sight, understanding, meetings, perception clauses, veure-hi, and regional forms.